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Do Not Tempt the Lord Your God. A Commentary on Matthew 4:7

Jesus said to him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Matthew 4:7

Thoughts on Today’s Verse…

This verse is the Lord Jesus’ warning to Satan. From Satan’s repetitive temptations to the Lord Jesus we can see, Satan doesn’t have a heart that reveres God. So even Satan knew the Lord Jesus was God, it still tried to find ways to tempt the Lord Jesus. These words of the Lord Jesus are spoken to Satan as well as to us who follow God. Since we don’t know God, we often do something that tempts God or disobeys God in our daily life. Since we have been corrupted by Satan, we will easily reveal Satan’s nature as soon as we encounter something, even deliberately offend God. Just as God’s word says, “Is there truth in this phrase that Jesus said? (Yes.) There is truth in it. On the surface it seems like a commandment for people to follow, it is a very simple phrase, but it is one that both man and Satan have often violated. So, the Lord Jesus said to it, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God,’ because this is what Satan often did and it made every effort to do so, you could even say that Satan shamelessly did so. It is Satan’s essential nature to not be in fear of God and not have reverence for God in its heart. So even when Satan was beside God and could see Him, Satan couldn’t help itself but tempt God. Therefore, the Lord Jesus said to Satan, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ This is a phrase that God has often said to Satan. Isn’t it appropriate to use this phrase even today? (Yes.) Why? (Because we also often tempt God.) People often tempt God, but why do people often do so? Is it because people are full of corrupt satanic disposition? (Yes.) So what Satan said above is something people often say? (Yes.) In what situations? One could say that people have been saying things like this and revealing them naturally irrespective of time and place. This proves that the disposition of people is exactly the same as the corrupt disposition of Satan. The Lord Jesus said a simple phrase, one that represents truth and one that people need. However, in this situation was the Lord Jesus arguing with Satan? Was there anything confrontational in what He said to Satan? (No.) How did the Lord Jesus view Satan’s temptation in His heart? Did He feel disgusted and repulsed? (Yes.) The Lord Jesus felt repulsed and disgusted but He did not argue with Satan, much less did He speak about any grand principles, isn’t that right? (Yes.) Why is that? (The Lord Jesus did not wish to acknowledge Satan.) Why didn’t He wish to acknowledge Satan? (Because Satan is always like this, it can never change.) Could we say that Satan is unreasonable? (Yes, we could.) Can Satan recognize that God is truth? Satan will never recognize that God is truth and never admit that God is truth; this is its nature.” Therefore, seeking to know God is especially important. If we don’t have knowledge of God, we’ll offend God’s disposition at any time on the basis of our naturalness, have adulterated thoughts in whatever we encounter and even judge God’s work in the issues created by God that do not match our conceptions. This is a serious problem! So only those who have knowledge of God and revere God in their hearts are able to care for God’s will, be quiet before God to seek God’s will regardless of what happened to them.

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